Disc drive systems are well known which operate and transmit data via electronic circuitry. To assemble a disc drive, electrical connections are made by soldering connectors to couple the circuitry of the disc drive for operation. In particular, a series of leads coupled to transducer elements of a head are soldered to conductive pads to connect to circuitry of the disc drive. A series of leads arranged along a common axis are soldered to a series of conductive pads arranged along a common axis using an elongated planar soldering element so that all of the electrical connections can be made in a single soldering operation.
During the soldering operation, the soldering element must be precisely aligned to contact the entire series of connectors. If one or more of the connectors is not properly soldered, the transducer elements of the heads will not be properly connected to circuitry of the disc drive for read and write operations. Accordingly, it is important to ensure that the soldering member provides sufficient heat and pressure to each connector of a series of connectors to electrically connect transducers to circuitry of the disc drive for operation. The present invention addresses these and other problems and offers other advantages over the prior art.